Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Felt Christmas Advent Calendar

Last year, I decided to make a felt advent calendar as a new Christmas tradition for our family. It was my first felt project and it took me weeks to finish it, but I was so proud of the outcome! I never had a chance to take decent pictures of it, so better late than never :)

I've learned so much since last year and I know this process would go a lot quicker if I attempted it now (I hand cut all of those numbers!), but this project was definitely a huge undertaking! I wanted to make an heirloom piece that we could add to and update throughout the years, so I'm happy that I put a lot of time and thought into it. I hand sewed the entire thing except for the advent pockets! The ornaments are all made out of felt and embroidery floss, and I glued a small loop of satin ribbon to each one to hang it on the tree.

I hand stitched a white outline around the tree and hand stitched all 24 buttons onto it. I used my sewing machine to sew the advent pockets. I layered four strips of felt on top of a large square piece of felt so that they were each slightly overlapping, and sewed vertical lines on top of them to make the separate pockets.

I scoured Pinterest for ornament ideas, made a list of what I wanted to make, then hand cut and hand stitched all 24 of them! I plan to update some in a few years once I get better at hand sewing. I also realized after I took these pictures that one of the ornaments was still hiding in a pocket...it's a small red heart in case anyone is wondering :)